


Remedies

by SweetSorcery



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, Humor, Love Confessions, M/M, Male Slash, Mating Rituals, Poetry, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-25
Updated: 2012-09-25
Packaged: 2017-11-15 00:50:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/521310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetSorcery/pseuds/SweetSorcery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Garak has a medical emergency. Luckily, Julian is an expert in the field.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remedies

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All canon characters, settings, events and other details are property of Viacom/Paramount and possibly other copyright holders. Non-canon bits were created for non-profit, non-infringement fan entertainment.
> 
> Archiving: Nowhere except here, and not in translated form either.
> 
> Notes: RL continues to be unkind to me, but I find I want to use this depressing/uninspired period to archive my first fandom love, which has always been something of a comfort cocoon to me during times of illness - Star Trek. I'm starting with the latest Trek story I wrote in hopes it will require the least editing. Ironically, it's set in sickbay. :)

Garak was not known for frequenting sickbay. In fact, even at death's door, he refused to set foot inside it.

So to see him stroll through the sickbay doors during an afternoon shift, smiling pleasantly at the nurse and requesting to consult with Dr Bashir on a medical emergency was, to say the least, highly unusual.

However, he had referred to it as an emergency, and that was the one phrase which caused Julian Bashir to drop whatever was occupying him - in this case, a quick sandwich after a busy morning - and hurry out into the main area of sickbay. In truth, he fully expected to find his friend expiring in a pool of blood; nothing less would bring Garak within reach of a hypo spray.

Instead, Garak was smiling at him from the doorway, looking, of all things, a little bashful.

"Garak? What's wrong?" Bashir approached the tailor, already brandishing his medical tricorder. He made a slow circle around Garak, frowning when he detected raised levels of adrenaline and an increase in pulse rate and respiration.

"I wonder, could I possibly see you in private, Dr Bashir?" Garak asked, oddly formal. "It's something of a... personal nature, you see."

"Ah." Bashir blushed on Garak's behalf. "Of course." He directed Garak behind a screen and asked the nurse not to disturb them unless and until he requested assistance.

Nurse Ukida, who was the soul of discretion, nodded and busied herself at the far end of the infirmary, and Julian went to join his patient.

"Maybe you should lie down, Garak?" he suggested when he found Garak contemplating the nearest biobed.

"No, that won't be necessary, doctor." Garak sat on the edge of the biobed to observe the frantic movements of the young doctor's hands on an assortment of diagnostic tools. "Are you nervous, doctor?"

"Am I-- No! No, of course not." Julian Bashir's wide grin - clearly meant to reassure a skittish patient - made him look even younger and more naïve than Garak already knew him to be.

"I'm afraid you've misunderstood the nature of my complaint," Garak soothed, unable to keep a twinkle from his eye.

"Oh." Julian blinked. "You said it was of a personal nature. I thought..." He blushed becomingly.

"It could hardly be more personal," Garak confirmed. "You see - it's my heart."

Julian's brow creased with worry, and he instantly raised his tricorder to make a second, even more thorough, scan of the Cardassian's chest.

Garak watched the concentration with which he was being examined and thought it only fair to clarify, "I doubt your machinery will find anything."

"What?" Julian Bashir's voice rose and he scanned even more frantically. "Garak, I may not be an expert on Cardassian anatomy, but I'm quite sure you have a heart more or less where most species keep theirs." He looked up, frowning at Garak, when he found a steady, if rather fast, heartbeat.

Garak could not help smirking. "Oh, it's there, but I doubt it's much use as it is. You see, my dear doctor..." He took the narrow wrist holding the tricorder and drew the doctor a little closer. "It's broken." He sighed. "Shattered. Completely in pieces."

Julian's mouth fell open. After a moment of unenlightening silence from Garak, he closed it again and swallowed hard. "You're speaking metaphorically, I assume?" The tailor merely looked at him strangely. "I'm sorry, Garak, I'm just not used to you being so... well, poetic, for want of a better word." The doctor withdrew his wrist and averted his face, but not before Garak caught a glimpse of pain in the expressive dark eyes. "Is it Ziyal?"

"Oh, great Gul!" Garak exclaimed. When Julian stared at him in utter confusion, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "No, doctor, it is most certainly not Ziyal."

"I'm sure it's none of my business," Julian hedged. "But if you want to talk to me about... well, whoever it is, you needn't make up a medical emergency as an excuse."

"My dear Dr Bashir, not only is it very much your business, but I wasn't making up a thing. You see, the damage to my poor old heart is long-term and so extensive, only a physician of your extraordinary skill could possibly fix it."

"You're mocking me," Julian said, looking at him darkly.

"If I am mocking anything about you, doctor, it is your naïveté, charming though it is." Garak chuckled when Julian blushed. "Though really, it is myself I should be mocking. Poetry indeed!" He rested his hands on his thighs and gave Julian a long, intense look. "I came here after spending hours browsing the database for a suitable quote from this Shakespeare fellow you're so fond of."

"I'm afraid I still don't understand."

Garak clutched his chest dramatically and recited, "I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit, so that but one heart we can make of it."

Julian blinked. "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

"More of a nightmare, if you ask me," Garak sighed. "Soppy drivel." His eyes softened and he smiled. "However, doctor, the sentiment is sincere, let me assure you."

Julian swayed a little. "Garak... did you just tell me that you love me?"

Garak snickered. "Look at you. Completely baffled! After years of putting my faith in time-honoured Cardassian mating rituals, only to see one romantic gesture after another go to waste, I thought I would try my luck at a Terran approach." He smiled wistfully. "For all the good it's done me in courting you. You still need to make sure I mean what I could have hardly made plainer."

Julian's eyes popped wide open. "So you do love me? And... you've been courting me? When? How?"

Garak's eyes sparkled. "Constantly. I've been pulling all the stops, my dear Julian. I have insulted you, angered you, exasperated you, mocked you, teased you, invaded your privacy, and held your shoulders on more than one occasion. Really, I've been making quite a fool of myself over you!"

"Held my... shoulders," Julian muttered. "That means something?"

"Not to you, evidently." Garak laughed. His eyes were soft and his lips curled up in an indulgent smile, and he placed his hands on Julian's shoulders and drew him forwards until the young doctor stood between his spread legs. In a low voice, he murmured, "Why, I have even considered biting you to drive home the point."

"Biting me?" Julian squeaked. He was trembling, but made no move to pull back when Garak tilted his head to attach his lips to Julian's throat and, a moment later, parted them to nip at the smooth, dark skin.

Julian's eyes rolled back in his head, and he moaned softly, which earned him a second, sharper nip. The tricorder dropped from his nerveless fingers to the biobed behind Garak's back. Clutching at the tailor's tunic, he tipped his head to give him better access.

"I should have known," Garak chuckled against the damp skin. "You're a sensualist." His lips brushed the length of the human's neck on their way to his ear. "I simply should have ravished you during one of our lunches, between the main course and dessert."

"Yes," Julian whimpered.

Garak's warm breath tickled Julian's ear with puffs of laughter. "So much for engaging the help of long dead scribes."

Julian drew back far enough to meet Garak's eyes and quote huskily, "Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, which we ascribe to heaven." When Garak looked at him in pleased surprise, he smiled and placed his hand on the tailor's chest. "And Garak... consider yourself cured."

THE END


End file.
